Michigan prefers football over debates
A venue with a captive audience. A large media contingent on hand to chronicle the proceedings. Supporters from both sides streaming into Ann Arbor and clogging the intersection at Stadium and Main.
It’s a familiar scene in this college town on Saturdays in the fall, when the Michigan football team takes the field.
But the university it represents didn’t want to recreate this busy tableau for a presidential debate scheduled for Oct. 15 at Crisler Center, citing concerns about having an influx of people during a pandemic that shows no signs of slowing down.
The decision to withdraw from a major political event raises questions about Michigan’s confidence to safely host games even as the school has welcomed back student-athletes to begin voluntary workouts in preparation for fall sports — perhaps signaling what’s to come for fans.
Even athletic director Warde Manuel wouldn’t guarantee that Michigan Stadium will be open to spectators if there is a season in 2020.
“Will it be 50% [capacity] or 30% or 20% or 10(%) or zero?” he said last week. “I’m not sure.”
Amesh Adalja, a member of the NCAA COVID-19 advisory panel and an expert on emerging infectious diseases, believes that if sports are to go on they will be played in near-empty venues for the foreseeable future.
That’s especially true for football, he said.
“I don’t think we’re going to see fans at any of these types of mass gathering type of events that they’re supporting,” he told the Free Press. “I think it’s going to be very hard to keep social distancing as well as keep transmission to a minimum if you have fans for sporting events just because of the nature of the event where people will be screaming and cheering and not being able to necessarily social distance. So, I think if there will be college sports they will likely occur without fans in most circumstances. When you are talking about a packed stadium, I don’t think that’s something most jurisdictions would think would be safe based on the likelihood of transmission and the impossibility to do contact tracing after such an event.”
The presence of spectators on a large scale also creates the need for more on-site workers at the venue, including security, state police, food and beverage vendors, medical crew, in-house maintenance staff and parking attendants. Under normal circumstances, there could be approximately 4,500 people providing services at a big stadium, according to Bill Squires, a sports facility consultant and the former president of the Stadium Managers Association. Eliminate the fans and that number of personnel could be slashed to approximately 200 based on a rough estimate, he said.
“I have a really difficult time seeing any venue in the country actually going to max capacity,” he asserted. “That would surprise me.”
Squires made that comment as he prepared to consume his meal through a feeding tube.
The 66-year-old New Jersey resident was stricken with COVID-19 in late March, spending 70 days in a hospital and a rehabilitation clinic while fighting for his life on a ventilator.
As time has gone by, he’s relearning how to walk while directing his effort toward providing solutions for event management that would protect people from the deadly virus.